The Arcana of Freemasonry (1915) - The Masonic Trowel

THE ARCANA OF FREEMASONRY 257
same as the Speculatives, but this is a Solar inno-
vation. The Supreme Masters' position should still
be North with them, as they are Stellar Cult, and
working or Operative Masons, and had nothing to
do with the Eschatological side originally, although
I find some of it in their present Ritual, which must
have been introduced during the Solar Cult. This
I will show a little later by the Symbols they use
and their present explanation of them.
I have already mentioned {supra) that the
Operative Masons first came into existence at the
time when the first old priests built their Temples,
that these builders of Temples were the " Ari "
of the seventeenth Nome of Upper Egypt, and in
"
Egyptian were called Craftsmen and Com-
panions," and that they were initiated into the
first and second Mysteries only. The Sacred Signs
and Symbols were given them as a guide to know-
ledge, how to form and build with various angles,
circles and other figures, by which the Architect
could, by crossing and placing in various positions,
portray for their guidance the buildings for the old
High Priests. They were initiated into the first
and second Mysteries so that they should keep
the secrets of these old buildings. The first
Temple was that built at Edfu, and no builders
were ever allowed to attend to these matters but
those of the " Ari '
in Egypt. They were all
naked at first, except a small piece of bark cloth
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